US visitor visa refusal rate for applicants from Burundi

The US refused 69.23% of visitor (B1/B2) visa applications from Burundi in FY2025, so about 30.8% were approved — rank 15 of 198 nationalities, down 3.93 points on FY2019. Source: US State Department adjusted refusal rates.

FY2025 refusal rate69.23% ▲ +3.71 pts vs FY2024
Global rank#15 of 198 nationalities
vs FY2019-3.93 points, against pre-pandemic
Year-to-year swing±10.90 typical annual move

Burundi's adjusted refusal rate for US visitor (B) visas was 69.23% in FY2025. That ranks 15 of 198 nationalities — higher than 93% of countries. It rose 3.71 points from 65.52% in FY2024. Against FY2019, the last pre-pandemic year published, it is 3.93 points lower. Over the 18 published years its highest was 77.72% (FY2020) and its lowest 32.90% (FY2006). Within Sub-Saharan Africa it ranks 10 of 49.

For context, across all nationalities in FY2024 the US refused 27.8% of B1/B2 applications and 41.0% of F-1 student applications. Those are worldwide figures — the government does not publish an F-1 refusal rate for Burundi or for any single country. Why not.

The full published history

Adjusted refusal rate (%)0204060802006200920122015202020232025FY17–18 not published69.23%

Get told when this changes

The State Department publishes these figures once a year with no announcement, and has skipped years entirely. We check the source daily and will email you when the number for Burundi moves. No newsletter, no marketing — just the data changing.

Closest peers by current rate

The countries whose FY2025 rate sits nearest to Burundi’s, either side.

CountryFY2025RankTrend
Nepal69.47%#14
Equatorial Guinea68.63%#16
Kenya68.23%#17
Yemen67.98%#18
Sierra Leone70.55%#13

Elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa

How Burundi’s neighbours compare on the same measure.

CountryFY2025Rank
Somalia83.52%#3
South Sudan76.09%#5
The Gambia75.29%#6
Guinea-Bissau75.17%#7
Senegal73.96%#8
Liberia73.01%#9
Togo72.02%#10
Burkina Faso71.25%#11

Every published year

Fiscal yearRefusal rate Change
FY200632.90%—
FY200756.00%+23.10
FY200858.80%+2.80
FY200952.20%-6.60
FY201036.40%-15.80
FY201145.50%+9.10
FY201246.10%+0.60
FY201352.70%+6.60
FY201450.00%-2.70
FY201558.35%+8.35
FY201661.33%+2.98
FY201973.16%+11.83
FY202077.72%+4.56
FY202153.23%-24.49
FY202269.52%+16.29
FY202366.29%-3.23
FY202465.52%-0.77
FY202569.23%+3.71

FY2017 and FY2018 are absent because the State Department never published them.

Questions people ask

What is the US visa refusal rate for applicants from Burundi?

69.23% for B1/B2 visitor visas in FY2025, according to the US State Department's adjusted refusal rate, which ranks Burundi 15 of 198.

Is there a US student (F-1) visa refusal rate for applicants from Burundi?

No. The State Department publishes refusal rates by nationality only for B visitor visas. F-1 and H-1B refusal rates exist only as worldwide totals, so any country-specific student visa refusal rate is an estimate, not an official figure.

What does the adjusted refusal rate count?

Each applicant once per fiscal year at final status: refusals minus refusals later overcome, divided by issuances plus that net refusal count.

Source

US Department of State, Calculation of the Adjusted Visa Refusal Rate for Tourist and Business Travelers Under the Guidelines of the Visa Waiver Program, FY2006–FY2025. One PDF per fiscal year. Primary source ↗

The adjusted rate is (refusals − overcomes) ÷ (issuances + refusals − overcomes), counting each applicant once per fiscal year at final status and excluding cases that required a waiver of ineligibility. Rank, change, volatility and peer figures on this page are computed by us from that data and are not published by the government.